The following is a list of books about Thompson, including biographies, criticism, memoirs, and also interviews. For books by Thompson, see this list and for his articles click here.
Title | Author | Publication Date | Brief Description |
Hunter S. Thompson | William McKeen | 1991 | Biography |
Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson | Paul Perry | 1992 | Biography |
Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson | E. Jean Carroll | 1993 | Half oral biography, half fantasy. A weird but valuable biography. |
When The Going Gets Weird: The Twisted Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson: A Very Unauthorized Biography | Peter O. Whitmire | 1993 | Biography |
The Joke’s Over: Bruised Memories: Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson and Me | Ralph Steadman | 2007 | Memoir |
Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson: An Oral Biography | Jann Wenner and Corey Seymour | 2007 | Oral biography |
The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson | Anita Thompson | 2007 | A collection of lessons from Thompson’s life. |
9 ½ Years Behind the Green Door. A Mitchell Brothers Stripper Remembers Her Lover Artie Mitchell, Hunter S. Thompson and the Killing that Rocked San Francisco | Simone Corday | 2007 | Memoir |
Who Killed Hunter S. Thompson?: An Inquiry into the Life & Death of the Master of Gonzo | Warren Hinckle | 2007 | Collection of memoirs |
The Kitchen Readings: Untold Stories of Hunter S. Thompson | Bob Braudis and Michael Cleverly | 2008 | Stories from Thompson’s friends. |
Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson | William McKeen | 2008 | The BEST of the biographies. |
Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson | Beef Torrey and Kevin Simonson | 2008 | Collection of interviews. |
Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson | Anita Thompson | 2009 | Another collection of interviews. |
Hunter S. Thompson. An Insider’s View of Deranged, Depraved, Drugged Out Brilliance | Jay Cowan | 2009 | Memoir |
Gonzo Republic: Hunter S. Thompson’s America | William Stephenson | 2011 | The first critical study |
Keep This Quiet: My Relationship with Hunter S. Thompson, Milton Klonsky and Jan Mensaert | Margaret A. Harrell | 2011 | Memoir |
Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson | Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith | 2012 | Graphic biography |
Gonzo Text: Disentangling Meaning in Hunter S. Thompson’s Journalism | Matthew Winston | 2014 | Critical study (academic) |
Stories I Tell Myself: Growing Up with Hunter S. Thompson | Juan Thompson | 2016 | Memoir by Hunter’s son |
Hunter S. Thompson: Fear, Loathing, and the Birth of Gonzo | Kevin T. McEneaney | 2016 | Critical study (marred by too many glaring errors) |
Gonzology: a Hunter Thompson Bibliography | Eric C. Shoaf | 2018 | Detailed bibliography |
Hunter S. Thompson: The Last Interview and Other Conversations | David Streitfeld | 2018 | Collection of interviews. |
Freak Kingdom: Hunter S. Thompson’s Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism | Timothy Denevi | 2019 | Critical study focusing on productive years. |
The Hell’s Angels Letters: Hunter S. Thompson, Margaret Harrell and the Making of an American Classic | Margaret A. Harrell | 2020 | Excellent multimedia look at the making of Hell’s Angels. |
High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism | David S. Wills | 2022 | The most comprehensive study of his work. |
Savage Journey: Hunter S. Thompson and the Weird Road to Gonzo | Peter Richardson | 2022 | A look at the creation of Gonzo. |
If I’m missing anything or have gotten anything wrong, let me know at david [at] gonzo-studies (dot) com. If you have an upcoming book on Hunter S. Thompson, I’d also be happy to add it. Note that I have not included works that simply mention him. The above are all largely focused on Thompson.